I'll Be Home For Christmas
by JulieM
Summary: Followup to 'Doorstep Angel' and 'Birthday Surprises.' If you haven't read those, then this won't make any sense. I reccomend reading them first! Just click on my name to go to my author's page...
1. Chapter 1

I'll Be Home for Christmas

Summary: All is going well for our favourite family, until the duty of being military personnel rears its ugly head. You may want to read the two prequels to this story, if you have not done so already. 'Doorstep Angel' and 'Birthday Surprises' can be found by searching under my author's name at 'JulieM.' The first story in this series was mostly a Mac centered one. The next focused on Harm and Mac with their child, becoming and then extending their family. This one's mostly Harm and the kids. Enjoy!

AN: This one's for my cousin Matt, who was in much the same predicament as Mac, around December of last year.

OOOO

Part 1

Harm knew, as soon as he walked in through the front door, that something wasn't right. It was unnaturally quiet. The glow from the setting sun was almost completely gone, yet every single light in the usually warm, brightly lit home was off. He didn't bother to rectify the situation; he had bigger worries on his mind. The only sign of life was the stack of mail that sat, half-sorted, on the small table beside the couch.

"Sarah?" Harm called, careful not to let his own nervousness creep in. It was just him worrying about nothing, he tried to tell himself.

"Calum? Buddy? Where's Dad's boy?" Again, there wasn't a sound.

When there wasn't a single sound to be heard in the house, yet Mac's car was still in the driveway, it usually meant that his family was having a rare-old time down at the play-park, down the road. But Harm had passed it on the way home, had scanned it for any sign of his family, just as he did every evening, out of habit…

Where else would they go? The nearest shopping precinct was not even within walking distance.

Quietly, he toed off his shoes, picking them up and ascending the stairs in sock-clad feet.

He left his dress shoes just at the top of the staircase, on the landing. He'd worry about putting them away later, once he'd figured out what was going on. He ducked his head into the first room, on his right, belonging to his and Mac's adopted son, Calum. It was deserted, even his toys were out of sight, not scattered about, abandoned in mid-play, as they usually were. Harm thought of going straight to the master bedroom at the end of the hall, but decided to check in the nursery, first.

He heard a soft crooning before he caught sight of his children, his nine-month-old daughter Hannah, laying in her crib, his son Calum standing beside her.

"Calum?" he asked, watching his son's head shoot up before he scurried straight over to him.

"Daddy!" Calum buried his little face into his neck, "Mommy's sad…She's been crying and I didn't know how to make her happy again. I cleaned up all the toys in my room, but that didn't work…So I came in to keep Hannah company, so she wouldn't cry, too."

"You're doing a great job, buddy," Harm hugged and congratulated him, "What would your Mommy and I do without you, huh!? Don't you worry about Mommy; Daddy will go and take care of her. You stay here and keep your sister company, okay?"

Harm set the boy down and he went back to sit beside the crib again. Harm dropped a quick caress on the top of his daughter's downy-soft head, before he turned towards his and Mac's bedroom.

Harm stripped off his outer coat and his tie, undoing the top button of his shirt. They were dropped haphazardly on the chair just inside the door.

"Sarah?" Harm asked, as he rounded the corner, into the main bedroom.

Mac was sitting at the window, looking out onto the street, now lit up in lamp-light.

"Honey?" Harm crossed to her. He knew without seeing her face that she had been crying, it was written across her demeanor, in her slumped shoulders, the tenseness of the hands that were gripping a now-crumpled sheet of paper.

Harm smoothed has hands over her shoulders, getting her attention and a small glimpse of her tear-stained face.

"Honey, what is it?"

Mac remained silent, but handed him the ball of paper.

As he took in the words it contained, Harm felt fear and shock land in his stomach with the subtlety of a breeze-block. After a few minutes, Harm scooped her into his arms and headed to their bed.

There was a lot that they would need to handle in the next three weeks, but that could all wait for tomorrow.

OOOO

"Where is Mommy going?" Calum asked for the third time that morning.

"Mommy's going to a big ship in the Persian gulf," Harm responded, automatically. Over the last week he and Mac had worked out exactly what was within his ability to grasp, "Remember the ship Daddy took you to see last month, with all the airplanes on the deck? The one Mommy's going to is almost exactly the same…"

"Yeah!" Calum exclaimed, excitedly then sobered, "Daddy? Can we go too?"

"No, son," Harm sighed; he'd wondered when this question would come up, "Mommy's got to travel a long way to get there. We need to stay here and keep the house clean and tidy."

"When's Mommy going to come back?" Calum's eyes were now filling with tears as he finally understood that this event would not be filled with excitement, like his trip to the Ticonderoga.

"She's got to stay there for some time, son," Harm gave his son a hug, rocking him comfortingly.

Even the baby knew that this was a somber moment, so remained quiet and still in her high-chair, munching gently on some cheerios.

"But _why_?" Calum's voice cracked and Harm had to fight the emotions himself.

"She'll be playing an important part in keeping all those men and women safe, in Iraq. But you and Hannah and Daddy will stay here and look after each other…and we'll send Mommy lots of presents and letters, so she knows we love her, that we miss her and so she knows how very proud we are of her…Now let's stop missing Mommy before she's even gone; let's make her favourite breakfast and bring it up to her on a tray, before she wakes up and comes looking for us…Calum, can you get the margarine out of the fridge, while I take care of the toast?"

The little boy dutifully went to go to the fridge and Harm took care of putting the bread into the toaster.

OOOO

Mac was just stirring when she heard noises outside her door.

"Grab the door for me, please, Calum," Harm's voice was a whisper, but Mac heard it in the still and silent room.

After a short pause, the door-handle rattled a little, before opening slowly.

"Good morning, Mommy!" Calum smiled, as he appeared from behind the door and saw his Mother was awake and watching him.

"Good Morning, baby!" Mac couldn't help but beam, as Calum ran into the arms she held out for him.

Harm was in the doorway behind him, balancing a filled tray with one hand, Hannah sitting in his other arm.

"Good morning," Harm dropped a kiss on her lips after lowering the breakfast tray onto her lap.

"What would I do without my boys?" Mac wondered aloud, as she dropped another kiss onto the top of her son's head, "They keep me so happy and well-fed…And you, Missy! Did you wake your Daddy and your brother up early, this morning, Miss Hannah?"

Harm sat on the other side of the bed, with Hannah on his lap, while Calum climbed onto the bottom of the bed, sitting in the space between their two sets of legs.

Mac tucked in with glee, while Harm told her, "At the crack of dawn…didn't you, my little rooster?"

Both Mac and Hannah couldn't help but giggle, even with their mouths full; Mac's with breakfast, Hannah's with half her fist.

Calum leaned down and cuddled into Mac's legs. She smoothed a hand across the fair hair of his head with one hand and continued eating her scrambled eggs with the other. She'd really miss this over the coming months. She quickly determined to make the coming weeks.

OOOO

Calum was silent as his parents, dressed in their uniforms, led him from the car and through the base, towards the airstrip.

Conversely, Hannah had known that something was wrong from the second she woke up this morning and was fairly bad-tempered. That mood had changed to tearful as they loaded Mac's gear into the trunk of the car, so Frank and Trish had offered to take her in their car, to the base.

That meant that they could concentrate on preparing Calum for the day ahead, in their own car.

"Mommy, don't go," Calum fretted, as Mac pulled him into her arms for a cuddle.

"No, not yet, sweetie," she reassured him, "We've still got some time, yet. Are you going to be a brave boy and help Daddy while I'm gone?"

Calum half-heartedly nodded his head.

"Because Daddy doesn't remember the routine as well as you do," Mac continued, "He doesn't know what time you need to get up in the morning, so that there's enough time to bath and dress Hannah, enough time to get you dressed and give you both breakfast, to pack your school bag and drive you to school and Hannah to the crèche. He doesn't know how to get all of the grocery shopping done and remember everything, so you don't need to go back and get things that you forgot. Can you help him with all that?"

Again Calum nodded, only slightly more reassured.

"I'll miss you, Mommy," Calum told her, mournfully.

"I'll miss you too, baby," Mac, tried to keep the tears from overflowing, "But I'll email as often as I can. And when they let me, I'm going to send you video messages, ones that you can put on the DVD player and play over and over again. It'll be almost like I'm really there."

Harm came and joined them with Hannah and for the next ten minutes, they huddled together as a family. Then Frank and Trish came forward and offered their own farewell, hugging Mac tightly. Since before she and Harm had even got together, both Trish and Frank had loved and treated her like she was their own daughter. Mac gave a last hug and kiss to her children, telling them that she loved them. Then Frank and Trish took Calum and Hannah with them, to go and get something to drink and use the restroom, so that Harm and Mac could say their own goodbyes in private.

"Shhh," Harm rocked Mac softly, in his arms, "It'll be okay. We'll be okay. All of us."

"I always knew it was a possibility," Mac wiped the tears away, "when I went back to work after my maternity leave was up, but I never thought that they'd deploy me abroad. Especially to a place so dangerous…"

"The Coral Sea has a great crew," Harm hushed her, "One of the best in the fleet. They'll keep you safe for me."

"Don't you worry about me," Mac shook her head, joking, "I'm a Marine, remember?"

"I know…you give them hell, Marine!" Harm smiled, taking her face in his hands and enveloping her in a deep kiss.

It would have to last them for the next five months and Harm wasn't caring about the crowds around them, they were too busy bidding their own loved-ones farewell.

All too soon, it was time for Mac to board the bus that would take her out onto the airstrip, to her waiting plane. Frank and Trish returned with the kids and they all gave Mac a final hug, before she turned towards her duty.

OOOO


	2. Chapter 2

OOOO

Month 1

"You've reached the Rabb residence; we're not in just now, but if you leave your name and number, we'll get back to as soon as we can"…'beep!'

"Sir? It's Harriet…Bud and I were just wondering if you and the kids would like to join us for dinner, tonight? Just let me know; it'll be no problem to put some more burgers on the grill for you and Calum…and of course we've got plenty of baby-food for Hannah, as well…Okay then, Sir. Bye…"

Harm sighed. He'd been screening his calls all weekend, every weekend so far, but he supposed he'd really have to answer this one. After a few minutes of pause, he picked up the phone and dialed Bud and Harriet's home number.

"Hello, Harriet? Hi! Thanks so much for the invitation, but the kids are actually with my parents, today…Yeah, they flew out on Friday, to surprise us and spend some time with the kids…Thanks, but I'm afraid I'm not the best of company. Rain check, though? Okay, thanks! Bye…"

OOOO

"Mommy! Mommy, Mommy, MOOOMMMEEEEEE!" Calum chanted, as Harm finally got them all through the front door and into the house, after a long and frustrating day. They'd stopped at the base post office on the way home, to pick up a parcel the postman had been unable to deliver, the day before.

"There you go, buddy!" Harm smiled, depositing the package only slightly bigger than their mailbox on the coffee table in front of his son, "Rip into it!"

Calum ripped off the paper and packing tape, then tore into the box underneath. He exclaimed in wonder when he saw all manner of gifts inside. After quietly pouring over a rolled up poster or the USS Coral Sea, and cap each for him and his Father, a model of an F-14 tomcat and a pint-sized t-shirt each for him and Hannah, he grabbed the letter and DVD case at the bottom.

"Daddy!" he shook the box at his Dad and Harm quickly took it from him, inserting it into the DVD machine on the bottom shelf, below the widescreen tv.

When he and both the kids were settled on the couch, he pressed play on the remote control.

They all sighed with relief and peace as Mac's smiling face appeared on the screen. As her words of love poured over them all, they relaxed back into the comfy cushions. This was a program that had been set up on many of the fleets sent into war, to help them keep in touch with their loved ones at home. It was particularly helpful to those who had children, because it meant that the deployed parent could feel like they were still taking part in the everyday routines of their children. Mac managed to send such a DVD home every fortnight, one in which she could read her children a bedtime story, then 'tuck them in' by singing them to sleep. Calum insisted on watching the DVD every night and several times a day, each weekend, until a new one came in the post. At the end of every DVD for her kids, Mac asked her husband to pause the DVD, so that he could put the kids to bed, for they were almost always both fast asleep by the time 'children's hour' had finished! Then he'd return and resume the DVD, listening as she told him what was going on aboard the ship (omitting any military secrets, or course!) She'd tell him how much she missed him and the kids, of the things she'd think about; their happy times as a family, whenever she felt lonely in her bed, after hours, when all was not quite silent, but at least quieter. As always, she'd allay his fears, telling him how the crew was taking care of each other; how they were keeping her safe, even though they still joked that she was a 'legal-weenie.'

"I love you; take care of each other for me, okay?"

When the screen went blank again, Harm turned the DVD off, to be enveloped by the discomforting sound of silence in the large house.

OOOO

"Daddy, you need to wake up…It's late…"

"Hmmm?" Harm squinted into the bright light that had been turned on in Calum's bedroom….

'Calum's bedroom?!' Harm suddenly realized, with shock, where he currently was.

A glance at the Spiderman themed clock on the wall told him that it was nearly past time to be leaving the house, and here they all were, still in bed, in their pajamas (well, not Harm; he was in civvies, but not his uniform) and none of them had even thought about preparing and eating breakfast!

"Sh…Shoot! Alright Calum, you need to be a big boy and start getting ready for school…I'll go and get Hannah ready for crèche…"

"I'm already ready for school Daddy!"

A quick glance at Calum confirmed that yes, he was dressed, but that his shirt clashed horrifically with his shorts, his shirt was buttoned up wrong and the button fly his shorts was undone.

"Uh, good job, sport! Why don't you go and eat some breakfast and get your bag all packed, I'll take care of Hannah and I…then I'll come back and help you _just a little bit_ with your clothes…"

Calum looked down at himself, mildly affronted; he thought he looked perfectly fine, but just shrugged and went to the kitchen to help himself to a bowl of cereal.

While his Dad got his sister and himself ready, Calum opened the fridge, searching for the milk to go with his bowl of cheerios. After a little accident a couple of months earlier, his parents had begun buying small cartons of milk for him to use, so that they didn't end up with a lake of milk over the kitchen table and floor again. Calum insisted on helping with every 'grown-up' task that caught his attention and once it did so, there was no dissuading him! Calum grabbed one of these cartons off the shelf and then went to pour it over his breakfast.

"Coates?" Harm was busy trying to wrestle Hannah's squirmy legs into her jeans and call into headquarters, at the same time.

"Good morning, Sir," she sounded far too chipper for somebody who was already in work at this hour.

"I'm afraid I'm running late, today, Petty Officer…"

"Don't worry, Sir…I'll just tell the Admiral that you had to stop by Langley to pick up those autopsy results that you were waiting on for the Robinson case…"

"I don't have those results, yet," Harm shook his head, sitting a reluctant Hannah up so that he could fit a t-shirt over her head, "they weren't through when I left….

"Lieutenant Roberts picked them up last night," Jen let him know, "after you'd left for the day…I've got them on my desk, so you only need to pick them up on your way in to see the Admiral…They pretty much confirm your suspicions, Sir…"

"You're a life-saver, Petty Officer!"

"I try, Sir!"

With a chuckle, Harm snapped the phone closed, picked Hannah up and headed out to see what mischief his son was getting up to!

Calum was preparing to put on his shoes and socks. Harm halted the boy, so that he could first get him into a new shirt and button up his shorts.

"I can do my socks and shoes, Daddy," Calum, told his Father.

"Okay," Harm said, buttoning the fly on Calum's shorts, "You do it then…Make sure you put them on the right feet…"

"But socks don't come in left and right, Daddy…"

"Not the socks, sport! The shoes…"

"Oh! Oh, yeah!"

Harm was still chuckling when they were all in the car, pulling out of the driveway.

OOOO

"Is Mommy coming back soon?" Calum asked, as Harm helped him out of bed sometime before sunrise, as had now become the norm.

"Uh, not yet, buddy…She's still keeping everybody on the ship and in Iraq safe…"

"But when?"

"There's still quite some time, still."

"How long?"

"The days will pass faster if you don't count them, son…A watched kettle never boils…"

"Huh?!"

"Never mind…You'll understand when you're older…"

Harm lifted some clothes out of Calum's wardrobe, to get the boy ready for school.

"Not those ones, Daddy," Calum pushed away the khaki pants and shirt his Father attempted to put down on the bed beside him, "I want my Spiderman outfit, today."

"Buddy, you know you can't wear your Spiderman outfit to school…" Harm was so tired he barely had the energy to protest. Would his teacher really care if Calum wore the full-length, blue and red suit to class today? Hmmm…probably! But how to explain this to a six-year-old?

Calum was frowning at him and for the hundredth time since his wife had gone, Harm found him thinking, 'I'm nowhere near as good at this as Mac is…How can I do this all on my own? I'm totally crap at this!'

Then another idea caught in his mind…'How would Mac handle this?'

"You wouldn't want to scare the other kids, would you?" Harm reasoned with the boy, "Shooting off your web-slingers, climbing up the walls and across the ceiling? What would Mrs. Cattersley do if a masked stranger walked into class? She'd faint from the shock of it!"

Calum giggled and nodded his head eagerly in agreement.

"We can't have that, because Mrs. Cattersley is a really nice lady, isn't she?"

Calum nodded again. He was turning out to be a little charmer, like his Dad and Harm really did suspect that his son was one of the teacher's favourites! Not that he'd ever say it aloud, lest any of the other parents get upset…But yeah, his boy loved going to school each day…at least he had, before Mac had left and Calum and Hannah had been stuck with their incompetent old Dad to get the household and childcare duties done. He was hardly what you would call a 'Mister Mom' type!

Harm pushed his thoughts aside; he had more important things to take care of, now.

"You can wear it when you get home, after Daddy comes to pick you up, okay?"

"Yeah, okay Daddy."

Today, they all got dressed, fed and ready for the day ahead of them, walking out the front door and getting into the car only twenty minutes behind schedule. It wasn't ideal, but it was still an improvement!

OOOO

After another busy day Harm collapsed into bed, though sorely-needed sleep proved elusive, especially as the events of the day wouldn't quit swirling around in his head. Calum had knocked a paint pot onto himself, an hour into class, so Harm had had to head home to grab a change of clothes for him. And later that day when he picked Hannah up from a play-date, en-route back to Calum's school, she had dropped her drink onto the floor of the car. The lid had burst off (Harm didn't recall that ever happening to Mac) and Hannah had murmured something that sounded suspiciously like 'shit!' He wasn't a hundred percent sure of it, though, but he would have to make sure he was more careful about what he said around the two kids, even when he didn't think they were listening. Mac would not be happy if Hannah's first word was a curse! There were no repeat offenses, so Harm had tried not to worry about it too much.

OOOO

"When did your boys start talking, Harriet?" Harm asked, curiously.

"Uh, somewhere between 11 and 13 months, Sir," Harriet replied, "AJ was a little faster, but probably because Bud gave him so much 'coaching'."

"It was almost a whole two months earlier, Harriet," Bud wandered over from the kitchen, where he had been pouring them all another drink, "I swear, Sir, one night AJ and I were watching an episode of Star Trek and he just came out with, 'Doctor Spock!' It was amazing!"

"Bud, he did not say 'Doctor Spock'," Harriet snorted, "That character wasn't even in the episode! It was just baby-jabber!"

"He did so," Bud argued, "AJ just probably recognized the uniform…"

Harriet laughed as she told Harm, "It sounded more like 'booger-snot' than 'Doctor Spock'!"

Harm tried not to laugh, but it was just too amusing. Bud looked quite offended, so Harm decided to try and attribute the laughter to something else.

"It's just that I think Hannah said something, when I picked her up from crèche and in the days since, I haven't made up my mind what to do about it. I mean, I couldn't tell for sure, in between all of that babbling, but she dropped her cup, which burst open over the carpet and…well, I could have sworn she said… _'shit'_! I have caught myself before I accidentally use certain words, but I don't know that some haven't slipped out without me realizing!"

Harm had glanced cautiously at the kids, to make sure they were all thoroughly engrossed in the tv, before he had uttered the offending word.

"AJ's come out with a few little gems he's learnt from the kids in his class and on his school bus," Bud confided, with a small grin, "It's so hard not to laugh, sometimes!"

"Are you sure it wasn't 'ship'?" Harriet asked, "That's what she calls her 'sippy-cup'."

"I sure hope so," Harm laughed, "Otherwise I'm going to be in big trouble with a big-bad marine!"

OOOO

Month 2

"Are you alright Sir?" Harriet asked, with concern.

She was now on maternity leave and had only come into JAG so that she could change some of the photographs in Bud's office and do a general clean around his work surfaces.

But the Commander she now saw before her had given her reason to pause, leaving her duster on the top of one of the desks in Bud's office, still only half clean.

"You don't happen to have any aspirin, do you, Harriet?" Harm looked up, hopefully.

"I'm sorry, Commander, I don't," Harriet smiled in sympathy, "How are Calum and Hannah doing?"

"I got Calum back to school today, after a bout of the flu," Harm blew his nose, for the umpteenth time that morning, "But now I think Hannah is going down with it. She had a bit of a cough this morning, but I'm really hoping that it won't come to anything…And I haven't even had time to think of myself."

"Sounds like you're knee deep in that flu, yourself," Harriet commented, guessing, "Calum brought it home from school?"

"Yeah, how'd you guess?!" Harm deadpanned.

Harriet grinned, adding, "Let me go fetch you a cup of herbal tea, Sir."

"No, you should be resting your feet, Lieutenant…" Harm protested.

"No problem, Sir," Harriet waived off his concern.

"Commander!"

Harm jumped up and stood to attention as his CO appeared in the doorway of his office.

"Sir!?"

"Go home, Commander!"

"But Sir, I'm f…"

"Go home, that's an order. Don't let me see you back here until you have a doctor's note saying that you and your children are healthy again, understood? I don't need your case of botulism spread around my staff…"

"Yes, Sir," Harm sighed, gathering his belongings, before going to find Harriet, to tell her that she was to put her feet up and drink that mug of tea herself!

OOOO

After picking up Hannah, Harm drove them both home. He could have just left Hannah in the crèche the whole day, but he didn't think he was ready to face the house on his own. He never went home until he had picked the kids up from school and the crèche and he could hardly stand it without Mac's warming presence, let alone without that of the kids. Calum didn't finish school for a few more hours, yet, but he and Hannah would find something to occupy them, in the meantime. Once he had changed out his uniform and had given Hannah a bottle and burped her, he settled her down in her crib, as she had begun to fall asleep. He returned downstairs, where he picked up one of the DVDs from Mac and slid it into the deck of the DVD player. Then he got comfortable on the couch and hit 'play' on the remote control. He didn't bother turning the volume up, because he didn't really feel like listening to the tale of Rapunzel, he just really needed to see his wife's beautiful face right now. Before he even knew it, the children's portion of the DVD had finished and Mac was turning to put the storybook down beside her. Harm quickly moved to turn up the volume, fumbling the remote which slipped out of his hand, bounced onto the floor and out of sight, under the couch.

"Dammit!" Harm cursed, squeezing his hand under the couch, fishing for the AWOL implement. In the end, he had to get on his hands and knees, on the floor, with his six in the air so that he could reach in until his bicep was squished into the small space beneath the couch.

"Finally," he groaned, as his fingertips closed around the remote.

Once the volume was turned up, Harm was quickly able to ascertain where in the 'conversation' his wife was. He'd watched this particular disc so many times since it had arrived in the mail, as many times as the kids…Well, almost as many times as the kids! Calum was understandably obsessive about the few discs in his collection from Mommy.

"_I don't know how I'm managing to get as much work done as I am…_" Mac was now saying, "_Flight ops are constantly going on, even in the dead of night and then there are different sirens and klaxons going off in the ship…all of that doesn't exactly lend itself to allowing me to sleep, on top of my usual insomnia…I can't wear any kind of ear-plugs, just in case there's some sort of emergency aboard the carrier and I don't hear the alarms…But even if all that stuff wasn't going on aboard ship, even if I didn't have the problems that I do with sleeping through the night, I wouldn't be able to get to sleep because you're not there…I toss and turn on this tiny little bunk and I can't get up and go to check on our babies, to make sure they're okay and put my mind at ease…I know you're taking such good care of them, but I really wish I was there with you, to take part in all the things we would do every single day and not even think anything about it…I miss you guys so much and I want to be home with you more than anything right now…_"

Her ramblings only slowed so that she could get her breath and wipe away the tears that had managed to escape, despite how she had called upon all her marine strength to hold herself together.

"_I can just imagine you telling me that I need to suck it up and stop giving the Marine Corps a bad name…_" Mac laughed tearfully as she said this, trying to joke to cover her embarrassment, but Harm still shook his head, as he carefully picked himself up off the couch and crouched closer to the big-screen television.

"No, never, honey…" Harm whispered, trailing his hand across her face on the screen, as if to wipe away her tears, like he always did while she was actually with him, "Please don't cry…We're all going to get through this…"

Harm knew it was going to be difficult, at times even unbearable. He wasn't going to say they were going be okay, because he knew that as hard as he was finding juggling work and the kids' schedules, Mac would find it even worse, without being able to be with any of her family. She had taken to living as a family like a duck to water, despite having little experience of such a thing both during her childhood and her adult life. Harm felt like he had almost been brought to his knees, he was missing Mac so much, some nights. Even throwing himself into nurturing their kids or his job didn't help divert his attention away from his wife, much of the time.

"_But then I think about how much faith you have in me and that makes it so much better…I don't know how I'd be able to cope without your support and encouragement…_"

Now sitting in the sunlit living room, more than an hour later, Harm began the disc again. Most of the tension that had been present in his muscles for the last few days had by now melted away and he lay motionless, face down on the couch, his cheek resting against the back of one hand. His eyes were wide and teary, focused closely on the screen of the tv…

OOOO

It was with a shock that he woke up to the sound of Hannah's cries. Thankfully, upon consulting his watch, he found that he had not been asleep long and still had thirty-five minutes before he had to leave to collect Calum from school. That was plenty of time to change Hannah's diaper which was inevitably wet through by now. He hoisted himself up off the couch, the weight on his shoulders thankfully much lighter than when he had first arrived home.

"Hey little girl!" Harm greeted his teary-eyes daughter, as he peered into the crib, "You feeling a little lonesome, there? Yeah, me too. How about we keep each other company until your brother comes out of school?"

As Harm had suspected, her diaper was indeed wet and dirty. He took care of it quickly and efficiently without so much as a grimace, before he dressed Hannah in something warmer, more suiting to the cooler weather that had moved in.

As he made his way back downstairs and into the living room with Hannah in his arms, he realized that the tv was still on, with the volume turned up unnecessarily high. He stopped for a few minutes, knowing that time wasn't that pressing…And realized just which part of Mac's conversation was currently being played. He quickly ducked down to grab the remote control from the arm of the couch and pressed the mute button.

"That, Miss Hannah, is a grown-up conversation that isn't suitable for little ears...I figure you'll have to wait…oh, at least thirty more years until you will be old enough to even hear that sort of thing!"

OOOO

Once they had picked Calum up from school, Harm brought them home for a late afternoon/early evening snack.

"Did you have a good day at school, today, sport?"

"Uh-huh!" Calum mumbled around his mouthful of sandwich.

Harm was so glad to see his son that he didn't have the heart to reprimand him for talking with his mouth full. He waited for the boy to chew and swallow before asking him anymore.

"What did you do?"

"We had spelling and art and…story-time…"

"Uh-huh," Harm nodded, encouraging him, "and what else?"

"Snack-time…and show and tell…"

"Did you bring anything for show and tell?" Harm suddenly frowned, not remembering his son telling him anything about this.

"No, it wasn't my turn, this week…Well, I'm not sure when Mrs Cattersley said it was my turn, but I think she said 'next month'…" Calum pondered to himself.

"Don't worry, buddy," Harm smoothed a hand over his son's head, "Daddy will check with Mrs. Cattersley, tomorrow."

"What could I bring in for show and tell, Daddy?"

"I don't know…what have the other kids brought in, so far?"

"Um, Georgie brought in her pet bullfrog…and Amy brought her Mommy and a photograph to show the class…she said she's going to get a new baby brother or sister…"

"Hmmm…" Harm pondered, "You could tell them all about Mommy…"

"What exactly does Mommy do on the ship, Daddy?"

"She's a legal advisor on the USS Coral Sea. She keeps all of the women and men aboard the ship safe and when she is needed, she flies to Iraq and Kuwait, to advise on the care of those who have been injured or arrest…those who just need help."

Harm and Mac had had a tough time explaining what her duties would be to their son. He was not quite seven years old, yet and understood only the basics of what they actually told him.

"She plays a very important part in helping the people involved in the war," Harm surmised and Calum seemed happy enough with his explanation.

"Daddy, can I go and put my Spiderman costume on?"

"Yeah, you go and do that, buddy," Harm nodded, "Daddy will feed Hannah her lunch, while you do. Remember, though; don't put your mask on until you've come all the way down the stairs. Last time you had in on backwards and couldn't see where you were going."

"Okay Daddy!"

Harm thought over his son's stories from school and it triggered some thoughts of his own. He thought he might have a project of his own that they could all work on, while waiting for Mac to come home.

OOOO

"Daddy?"

"What's wrong, son?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"Okay, champ, climb in…You didn't have bad dreams, did you?"

"No, but it's starting to thunder."

"There's no need to be frightened. I bet it sounds just like this where Mommy is…Just pretend that fighter planes are taking off from the deck above your head…"

Harm was so exhausted that he hadn't even heard the beginning rumblings or even the rain hitting off the bedroom window. By the time the two of them were dropping off to sleep, the thunder was starting to rattle the window panes and Hannah began to cry. As he left Calum in bed, seeing as the boy was out for the count, Harm gave up any idea of sleep coming anytime soon, concentrating on getting his daughter back to sleep before she woke her big brother, too.

OOOO

"I wish I was still allowed to handle automatic weapons in the courtroom," Harm joked to Sturgis, his second chair.

"Why's that?" Sturgis asked Harm.

"Because I could use a bullet to the head right now," he took a deep swallow of his coffee, while he read over his notes before their court session began.

Sturgis snorted with laughter. There was nothing like a lack of sleep to totally discombobulate Harmon Rabb, Jr.!

"The storm felled two trees on my street," Sturgis mentioned, "It was very powerful, apparently…not that I noticed…I slept through it."

"Calum too," Harm mused, "Funny, that it's the same boy who woke up at three am on his birthday, last year, because he heard the squeak of the staircase, when Mac and I were going to put his presents out!"

"Kids are funny that way," Sturgis remarked, "I remember you sleeping through fire-drills during our first semester at the Academy, yet if Keeter tried to sneak into your foot-locker, you were awake, radiating the cheer of a Rottweiler."

OOOO

Harm looked at the countdown system he had set on his office computer.

"That's neat," Sturgis commented, "How long now?"

"91 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 6 seconds."

"You know an exact time?"

"No, but that's a countdown until midnight, the day that Mac is scheduled to arrive home…It helps to know that we won't be waiting that long…"

"She'll know exactly how long is left, if anyone were to ask her, at any given point during the day, huh?" Sturgis asked, grinning.

"Yep!" Harm smiled back at him.

"You are one lucky man," Sturgis surmised.

"I am…and I'd better be going," Harm wheeled his chair back from his desk, "I've got to be back in court in fifteen minutes."

Once he was sure that Harm was gone, Sturgis motioned to some of the other JAG staff to come into Harm's office, so he could show them what Harm had set up on the desktop of his computer!

OOOO

"Hey Sailor, how are you guys managing without me?"

Harm had come to realize that he simply could not do without these ship-to-shore calls. They were lucky that they'd had the opportunity for only two of them before now, but they were as much of a life-line to him as the DVDs were to the kids. He could talk to his wife, in real-time, about any problems he was having and she would help him to overcome them. Most importantly, he could tell her that he loved her and hear her say it right back in return. He could hear the love in her voice, knowing that it was directed just at him, for the moment, since the kids were usually in school and crèche when she called. It made him feel so loved that his heart began to throw itself against his ribs.

"We're doing okay…Hannah's getting so big and Calum wants to start the after-school soccer league that the school runs…I convinced him that he should wait for the current semester to finish, before he starts adding to his activity load."

"And what about you, have you been taking care of yourself? You sound like you have the sniffles…"

Harm loved how Sarah always managed to keep him in mind, even when the children were taking up her every waking minute. He truly thought she was the most amazing woman, lawyer, mother and wife.

"Just a bit of a cold left over," Harm shrugged it off, "I'll be okay; it's almost completely gone, now."

"You need to take good care of yourself, flyboy," Mac told him, "I don't like not being there for you when you're sick. And you'll have a lot to do to get Christmas ready for the kids, before I come back."

"So you will be home on-schedule, then?"

"It seems like it…But things are kind of unpredictable out here…"

"Can't we just wait and do of all of the shopping together, like we always do?" Harm couldn't help but keep the whine out of his voice. It wasn't that he didn't like Christmas shopping, but he just preferred it when Mac was with him. It was a tradition they'd had at least once each holiday season, since not too long into their partnership at JAG.

"Not a week before Christmas, Harm!"

"Okay, I'm sorry…I only asked."

"If you thought buying for one child was hard enough, buying for two will be a nightmare…"

"I know I just like it when we go together…We can bundle up and walk through the streets together, when the snow is just beginning to fall…"

"How do you think all the presents for so many friends are going to get bought, by themselves?"

"Please, Mac," Harm actually held up a hand in surrender, "I don't want to fight with you…I know you're in the middle of a really tough situation out there… I just want to make the most of this time I get with you…"

An uncomfortable silence came over the line, then…

"You're right…I'm sorry, Harm…Being this far away is hard for me and I really want to be there to help with everything…"

"I know, baby…I think every day of how brave you are and how stupid I am because I can't even persuade Hannah to let me take her shoes off so she can go to bed, or get Calum to wear normal clothes to school, not the Spiderman outfit that he wants to wear.."

"You're doing a fantastic job, honey. Don't you let the little setbacks get you down; you do the best you can and…"

"…that's all that anyone can expect…Thanks, Mac. That makes me feel better. Of course it's not as good as a snuggly Marine Lieutenant Colonel to keep me toasty warm, at night…instead I've got a nearly-seven-year-old who snores and kicks lumps out of me as if he were a camel and an eleven-and-a-half-month-old who drools on me!"

"Never mind, I promise I'll make up for it once I get home," Mac's warm voice held the fire of that promise.

"Where are you, right now?" Ham wondered, aloud.

"The Comm. room, why?"

"There's nobody else there, is there?"

"No, but I'm not sure if somebody's monitoring the call or not…"

"Then phone sex is out of the question?"

"Harm!" Mac laughed heartily, mock-serious, though her tone implied the opposite, "You're incorrigible…Just you wait until I get home!"

"I look forward to it, Marine!" Harm goaded her a little more.

OOOO


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Okay JAG fans...Here's the latest installment. Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of the country this weekend, so don't look for any updates until Monday.

OOOO

Month 3

"This is my Mommy; Sarah MacKenzie-Rabb. She's a _luten_…_luten-nant ker-nal_ in the United States _Mawine Core_. Right now she's on the _USS Cowul Sea_."

Callum had carefully rehearsed this speech every afternoon and night, with Harm's guidance, for the last week-and-a-half, but he still occasionally lapsed into a lisp when he was very nervous. He really had to concentrate on the more important terms, lest he forget them.

He pointed to the poster of the large ship, tacked to the middle of the large piece of construction paper that was surrounded by photos of his Mom, taken in various places aboard ship. The title at the top said, 'What my Mommy does.'

"She's a lawyer in the military and this is her _Commanding Officer_, Admiral Matthews. Her job is to take care of the men and women who are on the ship or fighting the war in the Middle East. Sometimes, she goes to Iraq and the countries nearby, on a helicopter, like this one."

He pointed to the photo that pictured his Mom and Harm's old friend, Elizabeth 'Skates' Hawkes, standing beside the helo that had just brought her aboard.

"At night, she says she can hear the planes taking off and landing on the deck."

Again, he pointed to another photo.

"I love her a lot and I send her care packages every week. In two months she's going to come home to me, my little sister Hannah and my Dad but right now Mommy's got a very important job to do."

A round of enthusiastic applause greeted the end of his show-and-tell presentation.

Some of the other parents looked over with a mixture envy and sympathy at Harm, dressed in his full winter uniform, standing proudly with his camcorder in one hand and Hannah seated into his other arm.

"Well done, buddy!" he congratulated his son, "You were perfect! Look at all the people looking at the fantastic poster you made!"

Once the teacher had come over and told Calum how well he had done memorizing his presentation and told Harm how well he was supporting his children in his wife's absence, Harm kissed his son goodbye.

"I've got to get back to work, now, sport. Have a great day and Daddy will put your show-and-tell presentation onto a DVD at work, so we can watch it tonight before we get it all packed up ready to send to Mommy."

"Bye Daddy!" Calum hugged his legs, before going back to his seat at his desk.

"And you, Missy," Harm tucked the adorable dark curls behind his daughter's little ears, "Let's get you over to Auntie Harriet's house."

Hannah gave a little cough of assent, which was the remainder of yet another bug the children had picked up, the week before. Luckily it was something mild, or Harm really would have been brought to his knees! He had, however, decided to accept Harriet's offer of help, since Hannah was one of comparatively many children at her crèche. Harm felt more at ease leaving her with Harriet, even knowing that she was taking care of three other children (and only two before kindergarten let out,) two of whom had already had the bug before they passed it onto Calum!

OOOO

"Daddy?"

Calum, now sitting with his drawing block and colour pencils, in the middle of the kitchen floor, had been worryingly subdued since he'd got home from school.

"Yeah, Buddy?" Harm shared his attention between feeding his daughter and answering his son.

"How much longer is Mommy going to be away?"

"Um…Just under two months now, I think, Son. Why?"

"Billy at school said today that if Mommy's away for another two months, then that means she won't be here for Christmas…"

"Well, it's a little less than two months, see? And, well…we can't say for very sure that her cruise will have ended…but if she gets home when we think she will, then she should be in plenty of time for Christmas."

"So she will be here to watch Hannah and me unwrap our presents?"

"We hope so, Honey. Mommy will try her very best to be home in time, okay?"

"Okay…Mommy can only do her best, right Daddy?"

"That's right, Sport…"

Harm left Calum to his drawing and sat down at the kitchen table, putting his head in his hands, pressing the heel of each hand against his eyes in an attempt to quell the stinging sensation. Sometimes his son was too much like the love of his life! It got very difficult sometimes, to be reminded so often of someone he missed so much.

He and Mac had had the difficult conversation before she left, deciding together what they would do if her tour of duty was extended and she was forced to spend Christmas away from them.

"_I want you to celebrate it as normal_," Mac had told him, to which Harm had vehemently shook his head.

"_No way,_" he told her with conviction, "_There's just no way we're celebrating without you here…_"

"_I want the kids to enjoy a normal Christmas,_" Mac had argued.

"_It's not the day that makes the occasion,_" Harm had started to get angry, "_It's the fact that they have both of their loving parents here, with them…_"

"_But there might not be any way I can be there for it!_" Mac's temper was rapidly approaching boiling point, "_Don't you think I would try? If I can't, then there's nothing I can do about it!_"

"_I'm not saying that…_"

"_Are you trying to say that I chose this?!_"

"_No!_" Harm had quickly dropped the volume of his voice, taking his wife's hands in his and adopting a conciliatory tone, "_What I'm trying to say is that if you aren't back for December the 25__th__, we'll just celebrate Christmas whatever day you do get home. We could celebrate it in the middle of summer; the kids would only focus on the fact that you were here for it._"

"_Okay_," Mac had conceded.

Twice that night, they watched the video of Calum's show-and-tell, which they were going to mail to Mac, the next morning.

"I did my very best, didn't I, Daddy?" Calum asked.

"You certainly did, sport," Harm agreed, "You did an excellent job. Mommy's going to be so proud when she sees this. You sound just like she does in the courtroom, you know?"

"Mommy says I sound just like you," Calum informed him, with a grin.

OOOO

"What are we buying today, Daddy?" Calum asked his Dad, following him around the DIY Warehouse, holding onto the side of the shopping cart.

Harm tickled his little girl where she was sitting in the child-seat of the cart, perfectly content, before he turned back to answer his son.

"Today we're going to get paint," he told the boy, "So that we can paint the box room."

"Why?"

"Because we never got round to it when we moved in. We only just managed Hannah's room."

"Why?"

"Well, for the first few nights after she came home from the hospital, Mommy and I took her into our room, just in case there were still paint fumes in her nursery."

"Why?"

"Because paint fumes are dangerous to little babies."

"Will the paint fumes hurt me and Hannah, now?"

"No, because your two aren't very little anymore, but they won't smell that nice, so Daddy will put on one of Mommy's DVDs for you two while he paints. Then we'll open the windows and keep the door shut, while it's airing out."

"Okay."

A little old lady was smiling at them, as they came to the check-out. She obviously remembered what it was like to have a discussion with a six-year-old and the energy it took to satisfy a thousand little 'whys'.

"And after it's all dry, we're going to buy new furniture to put in it."

"Yay!" Callum shouted and Harm had to stifle a laugh, because he remembered that Calum hadn't been all that enthused to go furniture shopping, the last time.

"What colour furniture are we going to buy?" Calum asked, excitedly.

"White," Harm told him, "Mommy chose all white, the last time."

OOOO

Harm had just finished putting on the base-coat, when the cordless phone rang. He turned up the volume on the baby-com, so that he could keep a better ear out for the kids, while he had the distraction of speaking on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sir; it's PO Coates. I was wondering if I'd be able to drop by, today?"

"Sure Coates…Around what time?"

"Anytime, Sir. I just need you to sign off on a couple of things."

The Admiral was out of town, attending a function on the West Coast with the SecNav, so Harm was acting JAG in his absence.

"No problem, the kids and I plan on staying in all of today."

"Thanks, Sir."

When Jen arrived, she caught the smell of paint coming off his clothes and saw flecks of white in his hair.

"Are you decorating, Sir?" She asked, curiously.

"Oh…yeah!" Harm nodded, "Just doing up the extra room. Mac and I never got round to it when we moved in, so I thought I'd take care of it while I had some spare time on my hands…Are things quiet at JAG?"

"Pretty much, Sir," Jen nodded, "The Admiral couldn't have picked a better time to go away. Things settled down straight after he left."

"Let's hope they stay that way, at least until he gets back!" Harm joked and they both laughed.

"Are the kids around?"

"Yep, they should be in the den, watching one of the DVDs that Mac sent home."

"I'll just go and say hello to them before I leave."

By the time Jen returned, Harm noticed that her eyes were suspiciously moist.

"Bye, Sir," she startled him with an impromptu hug, telling him, "You just tell me if there's anything I can do for you guys, okay?"

Harm gave her a grateful squeeze back, telling her, "Yeah, thanks Jen."

After she had left, he went back to working on his labour of love for his wife.

OOOO

Month 4

"I'm ready for Mommy to be home, already," Calum complained sleepily, while Harm was tucking him into bed, just over two weeks later.

Harm was just as exhausted, himself and didn't have the energy to distract or dissuade his son from the 'pity party,' so figured he might as well join in.

"Me too, buddy. This week has been long, huh?"

Calum nodded in agreement.

"Even longer than last week and the week before, put together!"

"Sure was…Did you enjoy your class trip on Friday?"

"It was okay…It's better when Mommy is here to go, as well…"

Harm couldn't argue with that! He'd been unable to get the day off work, so the class had been a little short of volunteers and, as a result, overworked!

"What should we do once Mommy gets home, do you think?"

"Go and get ice-cream at the ice-cream parlor; it's lots of fun when we do that…Well, it's still fun when it's just you, me and Hannah, but it's more fun with Mommy, too."

"Lot's more fun," Harm agreed, settling down on the bed beside his son, remembering the last time they all went for ice-cream as a family. That particular day, he'd spotted a drop of ice cream deposited near the corner of Mac's mouth and before she managed to get to it with her napkin, he'd swooped down on it with his eager lips and tongue! He lived for moments like that; his Marine with barely concealed fire burning in her eyes, the kids in peals of laughter.

They'd have a lot to make up for once she got home…

OOOO

Harm lifted the last load of linens out of the tumble dryer. He'd just lifted some of the old equipment down from the attic, now all he had to do was wipe it all clean with a wet, soapy duster and he could replace the bed linen and other items.

"Daddy?"

"Yeah, buddy?" Harm peered back at his son, who was following him up the stairs.

"Where's the dryer sheet?"

For a moment, Harm was perplexed.

"Uh, what dryer sheet, Calum?"

"The one that Mommy always puts in with Hannah's crib sheets. It's my job to pick it out and throw it away when Mommy's done laundry…"

"Does Mommy always put dryer sheets in with the baby's laundry?"

"Yes."

Hmmm…

"Here," Harm bent down with the pile of folded laundry, "Do you think these smell nice?"

"Mmm, yeah!" Calum smiled, as he took another appreciative sniff, "This doesn't smell like the detergent that Mommy uses, but it's really nice!"

"And are they soft enough?"

Calum pushed his face into the laundry and Harm couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yes Daddy! Can we do my bed sheets with the new detergent too?"

"Okay, buddy, Daddy will get straight onto it once he's done putting these back on the crib…Is your sister still asleep?"

"Yep."

He still had time!

OOOO

Harm was flicking through Hannah's baby album, taking a look at the photos of her nursery. He was taking a mental inventory of everything she'd had in her nursery; what they still had and what hadn't lasted past infanthood, when he heard an unhappy shrill coming from Hannah's room.

"Daddy, Hannah's awake!" Calum's voice drifted up the stairs, from the den.

"I've got her, buddy, thanks!" Harm told him.

He stopped short as he reached the bedroom door. He heard a sound that was suspiciously liquid-sounding.

"Urgh!" he could help uttering, as he peered into the crib and took in the scene of devastation before him.

Lifting his daughter out of the slimy sheets, he dodged a mucky fist she swung towards his face, trying not to gag at the smell.

"Okay, sweetie…I think we need to get you into the bath-tub. Something you ate obviously didn't agree with you…"

OOOO

"What happened?" Calum's curious voice echoed as he joined Harm and Hannah in the stinky bathroom at the end of the hall.

It had been ten minutes and Harm was still trying to purify Hannah's curly dark hair of lumps of baby-sick.

"I think she didn't like that takeout you and I ordered, this afternoon."

"Mommy never gives her takeout," Calum informed him.

'It would have been nice if you could have told me that before she ingested a belly-full of the stuff, buddy,' Harm thought to himself, but bit his tongue.

"Just another thing to chalk up to experience, huh, son?"

"Yes, Daddy…"

OOOO


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Happy holidays to all! Here's another installment for your festive enjoyment!

OOOO

Month 5

"Are the kids excited, yet?" Sturgis asked, as he took a seat in front of Harm's desk, ready to discuss the possibilities of coming to a pre-trial agreement.

"They're bouncing off the walls," Harm grimaced.

Sturgis gave a chuckle, leafing through his case-notes, observing, "Sounds delightful!"

"Oh, no! Believe me Sturg, you didn't want to be around my house, last week," Harm shook his head, "Hannah ate something for lunch that obviously didn't agree with her little tummy and after she woke from her nap, let's just say that it wasn't just Calum hitting the walls. Her crib looked like something out of 'The Exorcist'! Oh well, I suppose I should be glad it wasn't coming from the other end, too, because that really is evil…"

Sturgis gave a disbelieving grimace.

"Remind me not to baby-sit," he shook his head.

"You should be fine, just as long as you don't feed her takeout."

"You didn't!" Sturgis exclaimed.

"Just a bit," Harm told him, defensively, "She liked the broccoli and couscous I was having. I only gave her the mushy stuff."

"No wonder she up-chucked," Sturgis chuckled.

"Just don't tell Mac, please," Harm replied, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like a plea, sighing, "That little girl is too much like her Mom for her own good! I think she could tell that it was too healthy for her!"

OOOO

Harm unfastened and lifted Hannah out of her car-seat, before heading around to help Calum out the other side.

"Daddy's going to get you and Hannah settled inside, then he'll come back out to the car to get all the boxes from the trunk, okay?" he told the little boy.

"Can I help you, Daddy?" Calum asked, making Harm smile.

"Uh…Yeah, I think there are a few things in there that you can help with. Let's just put Hannah down for a nap, first."

Once Hannah was all settled in her crib, Harm went back out to the car, carefully selecting a small box for his son, who had stayed right by his side, the whole time.

Once he lifted out a large one for himself, he told Calum, 'We're going to put these into the spare room, okay?"

Five hours and lots of confusion later, Harm surveyed the room with satisfaction. He'd forgotten how long some of this stuff took to put together! And he hadn't been so sure about how to arrange it all in the room, at first, but eventually he had gotten into the right frame of mind, so after a lot of switching around, he figured everything was in the most logical place.

Harm fished in his pocket for his cell phone, as it began to ring.

"Hello, Commander?"

"Harriet? Hi!"

"Hi, Sir! Bud and I were just wondering if we could help out in any way this weekend…Could we take the kids for you for the day? Give you some time to go out and do something for grown-ups…"

Harm chuckled, he couldn't actually remember the last time he'd been engaged in adult company, besides work and having dinner with Bud and Harriet, a few weeks ago.

"Oh, that sounds wonderful, Harriet!"

"When is better for you, Sir? Tomorrow or the holiday, on Monday?"

"Tomorrow sounds great, Harriet…What time do you want me to bring them by?"

"I can swing by and get them…around 9?"

"Are you sure? You've got two children and two babies on your hands, as it is…"

"Mike's here for the holiday weekend. He and Bud are going to watch the kids, while I go and get some groceries before I come by for Calum and Hannah."

"Thank you so much, Harriet! You have no idea how much I appreciate this!"

"I'm been there, Harm. I do know!"

Harm gave a chuckle, before hanging up.

Looking over the softly lit room, Harm was starting to believe that he was really getting better at handling things!

OOOO

Harm took his hands from over Harriet's eyes and let her see the room he'd spent so much time in, lately.

"Oh, Harm!" Harriet exclaimed, "This looks…Oh, Mac is going to love it!"

"I think I have it just the right…What?"

Harm couldn't help but see Harriet's gaze linger over the chest of drawers.

"Oh…no…nothing…"

"No, do you think…"

"Well," Harriet hesitated, pointing out, "Perhaps…maybe it would be best there."

"Where the wardrobe is?"

"It'll make it more accessible…It is one of the most-used items and should be closer to the crib…"

"And the wardrobe should go there?" Harm pointed to the space that would be vacated by the chest of drawers.

"Weeeeeellll," Harriet grimaced.

"Okay, I'll go and get a writing pad and a pen; we'll make a list…"

OOOO

Ring

"Commander Rabb…"

Harm's pen dropped to the desk as a faint voice came over the line.

He didn't comprehend anything beyond the word 'spouse of Colonel Sarah MacKenzie-Rabb'…

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that…"

Bud and Sturgis stopped discussing the case they were collaborating on, looking with concern to where Harm sat behind the desk, his face now white as a sheet.

"Yes, my wife, Lieutenant Colonel Sarah MacKenzie-Rabb, aboard the USS Coral Sea…but wait…in Kuwait? But what was she…Yes, I'm sure that the details are classified, but…She was supposed to be returning state-side, tomorrow! I understand you can't give me classified details, but surely you can tell me something…what am I supposed to tell my kids? Okay…I appreciate it, thank you…"

Once Harm had put down the phone, silence reigned, as he swiped at his face with hands that were shaking uncontrollably.

"Sir, is everything okay?" Bud finally found his voice and broke the silence, very visibly shaken himself.

"Harm, is Mac okay?" Sturgis asked more forcefully, when they got no answer.

"Yes," Harm finally stammered, "according to some aide to Admiral Matthews, she's just got a couple of m…minor injuries. Some sort of helo mishap. But it's going to delay her coming home."

"Thank God she's okay," Bud murmured, and Sturgis nodded in agreement.

"How minor are her injuries?" Bud asked.

"They couldn't tell me…"

"Do you know how long she will be delayed?" Sturgis would normally know better than subjecting Harm to the 'twenty-questions' routine, since it wouldn't help him feel any better, but his concern for Mac had apparently turned off some of his well-tuned inhibitors.

"I have no idea," Harm clenched at his hair with both fists as he got up from his desk and paced.

His jaw was clenched and a frustrated frown marred his weary, still-pale face.

"He couldn't tell me…What am I going to tell Calum!? He's expecting to go and pick her up tomorrow night…"

Bud and Sturgis were at a loss as to how to help their friend out.

OOOO

"My Mommy's coming home tomorrow!" Calum proudly told his teacher, who was leading the class towards the designated car pick-up point.

"Is she really, Calum?! You must be very excited!"

"Yeah! Me and my Dad have been cleaning the house all week, so it's all nice and clean for her coming back home!"

"That's very thoughtful! She'll be able to have a nice rest once she comes home, then, won't she?"

"Yeah! And we're going to take her for ice-cream, every night, after dinner!"

Mrs. Cattersley just laughed, knowing just whose idea it had been to treat their military hero to a nightly ice cream sundae! She'd witnessed at this year's school sports day just how many popsicles this boy could put away!

"Does she like ice-cream, then?"

"Yeah! She likes to share with Daddy, so they get two flavors each. She tries to feed Daddy off her spoon, but he goes and licks it off her mouth!"

That got several laughs, both from the other teachers who had gathered around to listen to Calum's story and from a couple of parents at the head of the queue to pick up their children.

"Please tell your Mom that I'm glad she's home safe and sound, Calum."

"Okay, Mrs. Cattersley. Thank you!"

Jane Cattersley hated to show favouritism, but Calum was without a doubt the most entertaining kid in the class!

OOOO

"Hey buddy!" Harm tried to sound cheery when Calum climbed into the car, "Put on your seatbelt. I asked Auntie Harriet to collect Hannah from crèche today, so that we could go and play at the park for a while."

"Yay!" Calum enthused, not suspecting a thing.

They'd had three turns on the slide, a shot on the swings and were starting to build some castles in the sand-pit when Harm decided that he couldn't put it off any longer.

"Calum, I got a call from somebody on the USS Coral Sea, today."

"Mommy?!" Calum looked at him with such innocent hope that Harm felt a physical pain, stabbing him in the chest. God, he wished he'd had more time to square himself away, before he had to tell Calum this.

"No…not Mommy. Somebody who works for Mommy's boss, Admiral Matthews. He said that Admiral Matthews is very sorry, but Mommy has to stay a little longer…"

"NO!" Calum whined, his despair even more painful to Harm than his childish joy.

"I'm sorry, buddy, but it should only be for a few days or so…"

"But Christmas is next week!"

"I know, but the helo that was supposed to bring Mommy and the other crew back…well, it…broke…now they need to fix it, before it can bring Mommy home."

"How long will it take them to fix it?"

"I'm not sure…Um, I don't think they know yet what the problem is…but we'll still have plenty of time until Christmas."

"Mommy's going to do her best to be there, right?" Calum sniffled.

"I'm sure she is," Harm thought of all the gifts that sat, neatly wrapped and ready in the attic and of the turkey in the deepfreeze. It had taken him months to get everything together. Thanksgiving had been a total bust, so he'd really been hoping that Christmas would work out for them.

"I don't want to open presents until Mommy gets here, even if it isn't until after Christmas," Calum obviously felt the same way.

"I'm sure she'll do her best," Harm hugged his son, with real sympathy.

Looking across the park, Harm saw an ice-cream vendor.

"How about an ice-cream, buddy?"

"No, thank you, Daddy…Can we go and get Hannah now, then go home and watch a Mommy DVD?"

"Sure."

Why did these things always seem to happen to them?

OOOO

Minus 1 Day and Counting…

The doorbell rang and Harm was in the laundry room, folding clothes.

"I'll get it, Daddy!"

Harm hurried and was just in time to check through the small window before his son yanked the door open. The situation warranted a lecture about opening the door to strangers, Harm knew that, but he was just too damn tired and stressed at the moment.

"Skates!" Harm quickly pulled the woman in, "How are you doing?! You're back home already?"

"I was just about to board my flight to Germany when I heard…"

She gave a small head-tilt towards Calum and Harm knew she was asking what she should mention, with Calum in the room.

"About the helo?" Harm asked, his tone indicating that she should keep it vague.

"Yeah…Last thing I heard, they thought that the second group would all be ready for transport Wednesday night. Think they've got a few…um, scrapes to fix up."

"Aunty Beth?" Calum asked, "How long will they take to get the helo fixed?"

"I'm not sure, Calum, but they've got their very best people working on the problem. I just thought that your Mom would want me to drop by and tell you everything is fine. And while I'm here, you guys have some more Christmas presents for under the tree!"

Calum got a glint of delight in his eyes and Harm reminded him, "What do you say, Calum?"

"Thank you, Aunty Beth!" he gave her a hug and a kiss, before accepting his, Hannah's and Harm and Mac's presents and running back into the den to place them under the Christmas tree.

Skates gave Harm a hug before she turned to go, telling him, "Hold tight, she'll be home before you know it…You take care of my favourite kids, you hear?!"

"Yes, Ma'am," Harm smiled as he watched her walk down the driveway, to her car.

OOOO

"Calum, sweetie?"

When Jane Cattersley didn't get any answer from the child with his head down on the desk, she walked around the table and swept the hair back from his face. Other children at the table giggled as their teacher discovered that the boy was fast asleep.

"Carry on with your work, please," she told the rest of the class, firmly, "You've only got another fifteen minutes to finish your stories and drawings about what you did last weekend."

She picked up Calum's workbook and went to take her place at her desk.

There wasn't a lot that was written in the book of thin, lined paper, but it told her everything she needed to know.

"My Mommy was supposed to come home on Saturday night, but her helo broke down, so now she has to stay there longer. Daddy says she'll try her very best to come home before Christmas but maybe it might not work out. I don't want to open my presents until she gets here. On Sunday Daddy asked if me and Hannah wanted to go over to Uncle Bud and Aunty Harriet's to play. I said no so we all stayed in and watched Mommy DVDs all day long. My picture shows me, my little sister Hannah and my Daddy. We are very sad."

As described in the passage, Calum's drawings showed three figures, two small and one large, wearing very pronounced frowns on their faces.

OOOO

"Rabb resi…dence!" Calum picked up the phone on the second ring.

He had figured out during a long brainstorming session the night before that if Mommy's boss called, he should be the one to pick up the phone. After all, if he asked very nicely to let Mommy come home, the man surely couldn't deny a little boy at Christmastime, could he?

"Calum…baby? It's Mommy…" came a very familiar voice that sounded distant.

"MOMMY!" Calum exclaimed, excitedly, not knowing how much that exclamation hurt both his Mother's battered heart and her sore head.

"Yeah baby! It's so good to hear you…"

"Mommy, are you coming home, soon?"

"Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I possibly can, baby. Mommy's trying to get on a flight, right now."

"Okay, that's good, Mommy, because me and Daddy and Hannah decided that we don't want to have Christmas if you aren't here…"

"I'll be there, sweetie, I promise…Could you find Daddy for me, so that I can tell him what time my plane should get in?"

"Okay Mommy…I love you!"

"I love you too, sweetie! I'll see you very soon!"

Harm had been standing anxiously beside his son since he had come running at Calum's exclamation of excitement.

"Mac!?"

"Easy there, sailor…" Mac's voice cracked as she not able to keep the pain out of her voice, this time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey…How are you doing?" Harm apologized.

"I'm okay. I'm more concerned with getting a flight out of here."

"Where's here?"

" London. I got taken to Germany on Saturday, so I could get patched up and…"

"I thought…They said you were okay!"

"I am. It's just a little knock on the head, some scrapes and bruises and a soft-cast on my wrist…but nothing's broken, luckily, just sprained…"

"Okay…But you take care of yourself. Ask for assistance if you need it and don't rush home; concentrate on yourself. Calum, Hannah and I are so looking forward to seeing you, but we're doing okay here. We can wait a few extra hours."

"No we can't, Daddy!" Calum cried, but Harm ignored him.

"I'm on stand-by for a flight out of here in six hours, but I'm not sure if I'll be able get on that one, or on the one in ten hours. I'll get somebody from the base to call you, if I get on the first flight. If I don't, I'll call you to let you know I'll be later."

"Okay, sweetie, I'll wait for the call," Harm mentally did the math in his head to work out what times she could possibly be landing, the next day.

"I love you, Harm. Give Hannah my love, too!"

"We love you, too, Marine! Take care of yourself…"

There was a click and the connection was cut.

It was just shy of 1am, long after Harm had put the kids to bed, when the call came through.

"Sir, this is Petty Officer Fensom…I'm calling on behalf of Admiral Matthews, to let you know that your wife caught a flight at 2315 Zulu. She'll be arriving at Norfolk Airforce Base at 1400 tomorrow afternoon, your time."

"Thank you, Petty Officer. Merry Christmas to you."

"Merry Christmas to you and the family, Sir."

OOOO


	5. Chapter 5

AN: A very merry Christmas to all jaggies, everywhere! Hope Santa brought you lots of nice presents! Here's another for the pile! Enjoy!

OOOO

The Final Stretch

"Everybody got their gloves on?" Harm asked, holding Hannah in one arm, his other hand poised on the handle of the front door.

"Yes, Daddy!" Calum shouted and Harm again checked Hannah, who had already lost one of her mittens three times in the hour they had taken to get ready.

Harm had known it would take a lot longer to get two excited kids ready, so he had allowed for extra time and so far, they still had an hour and fifteen minutes to make the three-quarters-of-an-hour journey.

"If you guys behave in the car, we can make a stop at the smoothie bar for fruit punch…"

"YAY! Fruit punch!" Calum cheered.

"GAH!" Hannah chimed in.

OOOO

Harm stopped at the guardhouse, to show the officer on duty his JAG id. The man looked curiously at his civilian clothes and at the children in the back seat, but did not ask any questions. Harm just didn't want to take any more time to get to the airfield than he had to, so he'd decided early on in the journey to use his position at JAG to his advantage. It's not like he ever did that outside of work, usually.

"Okay, let's bring your juice cups out with you," Harm mentioned as he got the kids out of the car, "When you're finished, we can throw them away."

"Daddy, is Mommy the only lady on the helo?" Calum asked, once they got to where other expectant families had gathered, in a sheltered building by the airstrip.

Sure enough, Harm saw that the crowd was made up completely of female spouses or partners with their children.

"Seems like it, Calum."

Harm barely noticed all of the stares, as the hands on his watch moved closer to the twelve and the two. As it got closer to the transport's arrival time, amazingly, Harm found it easier to count the minutes passing without even having to think about it.

"How long until Mommy gets here, Daddy?" Calum was equally as impatient.

"About nine more minutes, son…"

Where had that come from?! At least he wasn't aware of the seconds, too! Harm began to think about how funny it would be to tell Mac about this!

The tv monitor in the lounge told them that Mac's flight was now inbound, so Harm picked up the kids so that they could see out to the airfield.

"There's Mommy's plane!" Harm told them, once the large vehicle came into sight.

"That's a big plane, Daddy!" Calum fidgeted, excitedly.

"Isn't it?!" Harm nodded, giving his daughter a kiss as she babbled excitedly, locking her arms tightly around his neck.

Once the plane had landed, it began to taxi to an unloading bay. As it was getting into position, the crowd began emptying out of the warm building, braving the cold air outside. The entrance to the airfield was out of bounds to anyone who wasn't involved with ground operations or scheduled on a flight in or out, but Harm and the kids were able to get pretty close.

"Can you guys see Mommy, yet?" Harm asked the children, when a passengers began to file off the plane and down the staircase to the tarmac. They were disembarking from the far side of the plane, though, so none of the passengers were immediately recognizable. From looking at the build and the uniforms of the disembarking passengers, though, Harm could see right away that none of those visible were Mac. There were a couple of officers sporting casts, lots with cuts and bruises, but only one seemed to be using crutches to get around.

"Where is she, Daddy?"

Calum's voice had barely registered when Harm saw a familiar form emerge from the crowd around the bottom of the moveable staircase and he quickly pointed her out to Calum.

"MOMMMY!" the boy's voice rang out in the crisp, cold air and Mac's head quickly snapped up, a dazzling smile gracing her face.

She looked extremely tired, Harm registered, watching her hurry towards them…and kind of sore. Harm knew that these military transports were hell on the body, even if you weren't sore and injured beforehand and her slower than usual gait, despite how eager she was to see her family, was evidence of this.

After showing her id to one of the guards holding a clipboard, she was free to hurry over to them.

"Mommy!" Calum was, amazingly, getting even more excited now and Hannah was screeching with joy.

"I've missed you so much," Mac stooped down and took the kids into her arms, Hannah being lifted securely into her uninjured arm, Calum huddling into her side and shoulder of the arm sporting a cast.

Harm could see that she was probably in a lot of pain, with getting her body down into this position and the kids having run into her at speed, but it was clear she didn't care. The crowds around them also didn't deter her from shedding a few tears, even though she was in uniform. Once she had had a second with the kids, Harm leaned in, enveloping her from behind and she rose to full height again, leaning back against him tiredly. Leaning over her, he noted the laceration just in front of her temple, which sported five stitches. From his own experiences, he knew quite a bit about head injuries, so knew that it must have been quite a blow, just next to a very delicate area. He didn't say anything, just leaned in and captured her lips with his own.

Before they knew it, the area was beginning to empty and the cold was beginning to chill Mac, so Harm steered them back into the building, then out to the car.

"Have our babies been helping you while I've been gone, Daddy?" Mac's question, as they all climbed into the car, was aimed at both Harm and the kids.

Calum was nodding his head eagerly, but stayed quiet to allow his Dad to answer the question.

"Have they!? These two…I don't know how I would have managed without them! Wait 'til you get home and see what we've got to show you, Mommy!"

"It's a surprise!" Calum couldn't help adding his own input, "Daddy and me have been pai…uh, working on it for weeks!"

"Wow!" Mac exclaimed, turning back to look at her husband, curiously, "This sounds exciting!"

Harm looked at her with a glint in his eyes, reaching over to take her hand, entwining her fingers with his own.

"We think you'll like it," Harm told her, his eyes darting between her own gaze and the road before him.

He dropped his voice, when he added, "I think before we can actually use your surprise, though, we'll need some time first…for practice!"

"For practice?" Mac's voice was curious and puzzled, "We'll need practice before we can use my surprise?"

"Don't sound disappointed, Marine," Harm gave her a wink, "I'm sure the practice will be good fun, too!"

OOOO

By the time Harm finally pulled into the driveway, both his children and his wife were all fast asleep.

The journey had been relaxing and intimate. Both children had only stayed awake for a matter of minutes after pulling out of the airbase car park, their adrenaline obviously taking a nosedive, after being through the roof for so long.

Mac had managed to stay mostly awake for almost all of the journey, but leaning her head to the side to fix her gaze on her husband in the driver's seat, her eyes kept drifting closed, only to open again as she fought back the fatigue. Despite Harm often turning his head to smile at her and lock his gaze heatedly with hers, Mac's eyes finally drifted shut one final time, about ten minutes from home.

The plan had originally been to take Mac and the kids to dinner and later the ice cream parlor, before the helo mishap and the resulting delay, but Harm had quickly decided that it was probably best to get his tired Marine home and into the comfort of their bed.

"Sarah…sweetie…" Harm turned off the ignition, but hated to wake his wife when she looked so tired. However, they had two sleeping children and Mac's pack to get into the house, "Hey, honey, that's us home."

Harm lifted their sleeping son from the back of the car then retrieved the pack from the trunk, while Mac unbuckled and awkwardly lifted their daughter out of her car seat.

Once the two children were settled snugly into their respective beds, Harm took Mac's hand in his and pulled her towards the doorway.

Mac stopped to take a last, lingering look at their youngest and Harm told her, "The kids hardly got any sleep, last night. Calum woke up when I went to change Hannah's diaper during the night and I couldn't help but tell him that you had gotten onto your flight and were on the way home."

He leaned in to kiss her the way he had wanted to, earlier, but had not, because they were in public and she was in uniform.

After stroking the back of his fingers adoringly across her cheek, he took her hand again and guided her down the hallway, towards their own bedroom.

Even in her sleep-deprived state, she didn't forget their earlier conversation, so stopped Harm with a tug to his hand.

"Wait a minute…What is this surprise that you and Calum have been working on, for me? You're not going to make me wait any longer, are you? You've already told me that I can't even use it straight away…"

"Okay," Harm conceded, "Well, maybe you can't exactly 'use' it straight away, but I'm sure you can still get some enjoyment from it, none-the-less…Calum and I have put a lot of work into it!"

He pulled her past their master bedroom, to what Mac thought was the empty spare bedroom, on the other side.

As far as Mac was concerned, this was their storage room, empty apart from the miscellaneous children's toys that were all either stored here, or up in the attic, with Hannah's old baby equipment.

A smile lit across Mac's face as Harm quickly twisted the door handle open then reached over to put his hands over her eyes, before carefully shuffling them inside the room, nudging the door open, quietly.

Mac was immediately struck by how fresh the room smelled, nothing like the dusty old boxes that were now no longer kept in here.

"You ready, Marine?" Harm asked, his voice quiet and husky in her ear.

"Uh-huh…" Mac uttered, just a tinge of uncertainty in her voice.

When Harm lifted his hands away from her eyes, Mac gasped and her eyes went wide at the sight of the beautiful nursery that had been just an dusty box-room void of furniture, before she went away.

Three walls were painted in warm, inviting shades of neutral colors, so as to be suitable for either a boy or a girl. The other wall had a nursery-rhyme theme painted upon it, complete with a black and white cow soaring over a big, blue moon. New pieces of furniture in a soft shade of off-white were set up in just the right places so as to be practical and much of Hannah's old baby equipment was now in here, including the crib she'd been in until she outgrew it. Mac's eyes stung as she realized that even all of the bed- linen and window-dressing was cleanly washed and in place, and that Harm had even bought some extra bits and pieces.

Harm crossed over to the chest of drawers and turned on a small nursery light, which played music as it rotated and was designed to project faint animal-shapes of coloured light onto the walls. The effect would of course be more pronounced once night set in.

Mac hadn't realized that she hadn't yet uttered a word, until Harm cleared his throat and asked, a little uncertainly, "So, what do you think?"

"Oh, Harm," Mac searched for words to describe the emotions coursing through her, "It's absolutely beautiful, sweetheart."

Harm took her into his arms with relief. It had seemed like such a good idea while he had been struggling through daily life without her, anticipating her return, but for a little while there he had been unsure about how she might interpret this. He had worried that she might think he'd made a sole decision that should have been made together, as a couple.

"I know we'll have plenty on our plates in the next few months; you'll need to get back into the swing of things at JAG and the kids will be demanding your time…But I thought, at some point in the future, we could consider adding to our family…It wouldn't necessarily have to be anytime soon; this was just something for Calum and I to do, to keep busy with, while we were here without you, something for us to focus on, while we were waiting for you to come home to us. And then there's all of the 'practicing' you and I will have to do, in order to make sure that we get the process perfect, ready for the right time…"

Mac giggled, placing her arm without the cast over Harm's, wrapped around her from behind and leaning back into his warm, strong embrace.

"I think that's a wonderful idea," she turned and dropped a brief kiss on her husband's lips, "After the last six months, all I want to do is crawl into bed with you and not come out all weekend…"

"I'm sure the kids will come looking for us at some point, "Harm chuckled, "But, in principle, that is a very good idea!"

Mac stilled him with a squeeze of his hand that was unconsciously rubbing her soft belly, underneath her uniform blouse.

"But there's something I think we should discuss, before we get to that point…"

Harm gauged by the expression on her face that this was definitely something serious.

"What is it, Sarah?"

"Not here," she interrupted him, looking at the beautiful room around them, "Let's go into our room."

Regretfully, she shut off the light in the nursery and took a last, lingering look around, before they walked out into the hallway and shut the door behind them.

Once they were in their room, seated on the bed, Mac began the speech she'd been composing the whole trip home.

"This is something I've been thinking about, ever since I deployed five months ago. And spending every day since then away from you and the kids has only confirmed it…I'd like to resign my commission…"

Harm frowned, he'd thought maybe this might happen, but he wanted to make sure that Mac wasn't making a spur of the moment decision that she might regret a few months down the line.

"Mac, are you sure this is what you w…"

"I'm absolutely certain of it, Harm," Mac put her fingers to his mouth, to silence him, "This is a decision I came to, even before the helo mishap. My children need me and so does my husband and I don't want to ever have to leave them behind for so long, to deploy to a war zone, ever again. I've given so many years of my life, my unflinching devotion to the Marine Corp and it gave me the best life I could have hoped for…But now we have a family, one we'd like to add to and I think it's time to move onto another stage in my life…"

"So…you'd like to add to our family too," Harm took her hands in his, "and you think that the best thing to do would be to give your career up to do so."

"I think it would be possible to stay in the Corps and have another child…But I remember how difficult it was at times, when I had Hannah…And I don't want to risk being deployed to another country when my youngest child is still under a year old, again…"

"That probably won't happen again," Harm told her, "especially before our child is two years old…"

"But in a time of war, it's not a certainty and I can't live with that…As our helo went down, Harm, I barely had the time to think of anything…But I thought of you and the kids…And afterwards, in the hospital, while the nurses and doctors were patching me up, all I could think of was, 'What if something had happened to me? What if you'd had to raise them alone? If they'd have had to grow up without me…It's not a risk I can take anymore, especially if we'd like to add to our family."

"As long as this is what you want, Sarah, I'll support you all the way…" Harm nodded in understanding, after hearing his own nightmares over the past weeks and months, being uttered aloud.

Mac got a glint in her eyes and leaned in to kiss him, then moved down to his strong jaw-line, down his neck and to his chest, unbuttoning his shirt as she went, pushing him back on the bed.

"I want to fill this house to bursting-point, with little flyboys and girls, just like the two we've already been blessed with…I want to be here to spend every minute of their childhood with them. I want to 'practice' and perfect the process of making them with you, everyday, here in our bed and anywhere else we can think of."

At Harm's chuckle, she rose back up and locked her hungry lips back onto his…

That was, until they were forced to break apart, at the sound of a knock on the door…

Their instinctively locked gaze showed just the slightest sense of disappointment, for as much as they were aching to be together again, their proper reunion as a family was more important to both of them.

"Come in…" Harm called, as Mac lay her head back on Harm's chest.

The door opened to admit Calum, in his pajamas.

"I woke up and I thought that you were gone again, Mommy," his little lower lip stuck out.

"C'mere, baby. I'm not going anywhere, I promise!" Mac held out an arm to him and he ran to snuggle in with Mac, as Harm got up to go and get their other child.

Hours later, they were all well-settled back into the king-sized bed. Calum was snuggled between Harm and Mac and Hannah was again fast asleep on Harm's chest, his arms somehow ensconcing them all. Harm couldn't help but think how this wasn't quite how he had imagined himself and Mac spending their first night at home…but how he wouldn't change it for the world!

Epilogue

Harm stuck his head around his son's bedroom door and grinned at the sight of Calum, out cold, tangled up in his sheets. This was the first night that he had slept in his own bed, because for most of the time since his Mother's return home, he'd barely allowed her out of his sight for an hour. Harm had convinced him to stay in his own bed, on Christmas Eve, just in case Santa thought there was no Calum MacKenzie-Rabb in the house and forgot to leave behind his presents! Mac had been grinning as she gave him a discrete smack on the arm for teasing their son, but they were both slightly weary of the little wriggly worm that took up as much space as a child twice his size! It was also somewhat disappointing not to have the chance for any intimate time for themselves, either.

Harm tip-toed into the room and hooked Calum's over-filled stocking over one of the bed-posts, at the foot of the bed.

"Hey, Calum," Harm gently roused his son, "Buddy? What are you still doing in bed, you lazy-bones!? It's nearly eight-o'clock and Santa's already been and gone! You should see all the stuff he's left you!"

"Huh!?" Calum shot out of bed as soon as Harm's words registered.

He took in the stocking at the foot of his bed and a grin spread across his face.

"HE CAME!" he crowed, spilling some candy out of the stocking as he grabbed it, "SANTA CAME BECAUSE I WAS A BIG BOY AND STAYED IN MY OWN BED ALL NIGHT! AWESOME!!"

Harm hadn't even managed to stop laughing before Calum bounced up and down on the bed a couple of times, took off through the air, landing on his feet and tearing out the doorway.

Mac was just coming out of Hannah's room as Calum ran into the hallway.

"Good morning, baby!" She flashed a beaming smile at her radiant son, who ran straight into her arms, "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Mommy," he smiled back, before demanding, "Can Hannah and I go and open our presents, now?"

"Hang on a minute…Your Daddy needs to find the spare battery to put in the video-camera before you can unwrap anything…Go downstairs and take a look at your presents, but don't unwrap anything yet…Daddy and I won't be a minute…"

Harm quickly did as she had requested and they were soon all assembled in the living room, which looked like Santa's workshop.

Harm was recording footage of Calum tearing into his gift-wrapped presents like the Tasmanian Devil. Mac, meanwhile was assisting Hannah in unwrapping her own lavish pile of presents, although the little girl was quickly becoming skilled in her own right, by watching her brother's example!

"I think Santa obviously knew what a fantastically good boy you've been this year, buddy!" Harm commentated, as Calum tore the wrapping off a large box to reveal a model of a pirate ship.

"I helped you make the spare room into a new baby's room, didn't I, Daddy?" Calum was already into all of the parts of his model ship, which Mac carefully kept in one pile after they got examined, so nothing got accidentally misplaced.

"You sure did, buddy!" Harm agreed, telling Mac, "You've never seen such a hard-working furniture mover, Mom. This boy never stopped, even when he got tired! He wanted everything to be just perfect!"

"Reminds me of someone else I know," Mac quietly joked, so that Calum didn't hear her.

Harm shot her a mock-dirty look.

"And I slept the whole night in my own bed, last night," Calum added, "I didn't even come into you and Mommy's room when I heard you come to bed…"

Harm didn't bother switching off the video camera, but dropped his voice as he joked to Mac.

"Hey, now we might just be able to put that new room to good use, sometime in the next nine months or so, huh, Ninja-girl?"

The smoldering grin Mac shot him back was worth a thousand words!

FIN


End file.
